In contrast to the diversity of students, the implementation of federal policies has created a push for standardization in pedagogy and curriculum that serve culturally and linguistically diverse students. Effects include narrowing of curriculum and pedagogy, proliferation of prescriptive literacy programs, increased high-stakes testing, and negative effects on teachers’ identity, autonomy, and desire to teach. Simultaneously, teaching prospective teachers how to construct culturally relevant curriculum and pedagogy is emphasized as a vital part of teacher preparation. However, research shows that even when teachers leave programs with preparation for culturally relevant teaching, initial jobs and local contexts shape and constrain teachers’ ideologies, agency, goals, and practice connected to teaching diverse students. In response to research, this study was designed to investigate how novice Teach For America teachers with an espoused culturally relevant pedagogy ideology implement a scripted literacy program in urban classrooms. A multiple case study design guided data collection and analysis. Data collection included interviews, observations, observation debriefs, visual representations, documents, and teaching artifacts. The data were analyzed using a constant comparative approach and Grounded Theory techniques. These teachers were constrained and influenced by several institutional and contextual factors, yet were able to negotiate their educational beliefs with the requirements of their mandated scripted literacy program to enact tenets of culturally relevant teaching. The findings suggest teacher preparation programs need to have a conceptual framework embedded in coursework and field experiences that empowers beginning teachers to negotiate the sociopolitical constraints of their school context to meet the needs of students.

Teach For America (TFA) has seen its profile and list of donors expand tremendously in recent years. Despite its success in attracting support, research on the effectiveness of the program has been inconclusive. This study investigates the impact of TFA on student achievement measured at the state level. Panel data from grades 4 and 8 are analyzed to examine how the presence of TFA corps members in a state impacts student test scores compared to states which have no TFA corps members.

This narrative research study investigated the identity development process of a group of beginning teachers participating in Teach For America (TFA). The participants (n=3) were middle or high school teachers who had taught in high needs, low income urban school settings. They had also blogged on the “Teach For Us” blog hosting site about their experiences in the classroom as beginning teachers. Through the lenses of Sfard and Prusak’s (2005) narrative theory of identity and Mead’s (1934) social theory of identity and the role of the “Generalized Other”, narrative research techniques were used to analyze the stories found in their blog postings. Their stories show that these teachers were ill prepared for the realities they would face and that teaching in a challenging, high poverty, urban school setting was at times overwhelming. The duality and struggle between their Generalized Other concepts of a TFA corps member and who they were becoming as a teacher was found throughout their stories. The stories also show that over time, each became more confident in their abilities and in who they were becoming as a teacher. With this growth came more job satisfaction, yet each decided to leave their TFA placement schools after their second year to pursue other options. Themes include the struggles the teachers faced their first year, the transformation that occurred during their second year, the conflicts between their TFA identity and their teacher identity, the impact of high stakes testing and racial issues, and the cathartic nature of blogging.

The purpose with this essay was to study the knowledge of children today between six and eight years old about the human body and its function. A second purpose was to study how junior-level educationalist were carrying through there tuition about the human body. I wanted to investigate if the children today hade another knowledge about the human body than children that participated in previous similar investigations. I wanted to investigate this because today we live in another society than before with  more access to information. My first question was to find out what children thought that we humans looked like inside the body and how its works. My second question was how junior-level educationalist do carry out  their tuition. Ten children and tree junior-level educationalist participated in qualitative interviews, interviewed one by one. During the interviews the children were given a picture with a contour of the human body where they could fill in different organ. The most common organs that the children painted on their pictures of the human body where brain, heart, stomach, skeleton and lungs. The children also had some knowledge about the different organs like the skeletons function was to make the body hard, the hearts function was to pump the blood around in our body, the brain control the whole body and the stomach purpose was to take care of the food we eat. The educationalist replied that they used a lot of concrete material and they tried to have miscellaneous tuition. The result of this study is that the children today don’t have so much more knowledge of the human body than children that have been interview in older days. The result also showed that the way the educationalist were teaching hade a positive influents on the students learning. / Syftet med undersökningen var att se vad barn mellan sex och åtta års ålder idag hade för tankar om hur vi människor ser ut inuti vår kropp och hur det fungerar inuti oss men också att undersöka hur lågstadiepedagoger går tillväga vid undervisningen om människokroppen. Jag ville undersöka om barnen idag hade mer kunskap om människokroppen än de barn som ingått i liknande studier tidigare, eftersom vi idag lever i ett informationssamhälle. Min första frågeställning blev att ta reda på barnens tankar om människokroppens inre och hur det fungerar inuti oss. Min andra frågeställning blev hur lågstadiepedagoger gick tillväga med sin undervisning om människokroppen. Tio barn och tre lågstadiepedagoger har medverkat i kvalitativa intervjuer där de intervjuades en och en. Under intervjutillfällena fick barnen en bild med människokroppens kontur för att fylla i olika organ. De vanligaste organen som barnen ritade var hjärna, hjärta, magsäck, skelett och lungorna. Barnen berättade också bl.a. att skelettets funktion var att göra kroppen hård, hjärtat pumpade runt blod i kroppen, hjärnan styrde kroppen, magen tog hand om vår mat. Pedagogerna svarade att de använde mycket konkret material och att de försökte ha en så varierad undervisning som möjligt. Resultatet från denna studie visade att barnen idag inte har så mycket mer kunskap än de barn som ingått i liknande studier från förr. Resultatet visade också att det sätt pedagogerna undervisade på hade en positiv inverkan på elevernas lärande.

Prevent-Teach-Reinforce (PTR) is a collaborative, standardized process that was developed as a way to address identified barriers to completing effective functional behavior assessments (FBAs) in public schools. Current research literature documents the effectiveness of the PTR process in decreasing problematic behaviors and increasing social skills and academic engaged time for students in kindergarten through 8th grade. In addition, PTR demonstrates high acceptability by school personnel implementing the process. While PTR has demonstrated success in schools, questions still exist regarding variables that impact the effectiveness of this process. Therefore, the current study investigated the moderating effect of prior teacher training in managing challenging behavior on the effectiveness of the Prevent-Teach-Reinforce (PTR) process. Data regarding students' social skills, behavior problems, and academic engagement were analyzed through a series of mixed factorial analyses in order to determine the effectiveness of the PTR process. Results indicate that teachers' previous preparation in dealing with behavioral problems did not moderate the effectiveness of PTR, thus indicating that the process is equally beneficial to all teachers. However, time and the implementation of PTR were found to be significant in altering trends in student outcomes. Academic engaged time was found to be significantly altered more frequently than social skills or behavior problems. Implications of the findings for using the PTR process to address problematic student behavior in schools are discussed.

This longitudinal case study followed a beginning teacher from the first semester of her teacher education program into her fifth year of teaching. Using situated learning theory, this dissertation reports the influences on her journey in becoming a literacy teacher before, during, and after her teacher education program. Data sources included interviews, classroom observations, and documents that were collected over six and a half years and across multiple contexts (e.g., tutoring, student teaching, community-based learning, coursework, two elementary schools). Using constant comparative (Glaser & Strauss, 2009) and longitudinal coding methods (Saldaña, 2009), the analysis suggests that the participant developed the following understandings over time and across contexts: she intends to be a lifelong learner; she values and validates students’ interests, histories, and contributions; she is committed to teaching for social justice; and she believes a safe, trusting, and flexible community is essential to learning. Findings indicated that her ability to enact these understandings in practice, even in difficult school contexts, was made possible by her reflective stance and her commitment to surrounding herself with communities of like-minded people to support her in similar ways as had been the case in her teacher education program. The results of this study provide evidence that over time the understandings developed in a teacher education program have the potential to fully emerge in practice inside teachers’ classrooms. This study has implications for how we prepare teachers, how teacher education programs can continue to support their graduates, the types of school communities that seem to support beginning teachers, and how policy makers might direct future funding towards responsible teacher education. / text

Η παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία αφορά την κατασκευή εκπαιδευτικού πακέτου σε μορφή ψηφιακού δίσκου με θέμα τα Αγγλικά Κάστρα, συνοδευόμενο από εκπαιδευτικό υλικό, χρήσιμο ως συμπληρωματικό εργαλείο για τον καθηγητή της Αγγλικής γλώσσας στις τάξεις του Λυκείου. Σκοπός μας, είναι να διευκολύνουμε την εκπαιδευτική διαδικασία με τη βοήθεια του συγκεκριμένου λογισμικού παρέχοντας παράλληλα ιστορικά στοιχεία. Στα πλαίσια των βασικών αξόνων του εγγραμματισμού, της πολυγλωσσίας και της πολυπολιτισμικότητας, οι οποίοι, σύμφωνα με τα τρέχοντα προγράμματα σπουδών, διέπουν τη διδασκαλία ξένων γλωσσών, ο γενικός θεματικός άξονας του εκπαιδευτικού πακέτου είναι η γνωριμία των μαθητών με κάποια από τα κάστρα της Αγγλίας. Η χώρα αυτή είναι γεμάτη μεσαιωνικά κάστρα που αποτελούν κάστρα-ιστορικά μνημεία, τα οποία αντικατοπτρίζουν ένα μεγάλο μέρος της κοινωνικής εξέλιξης και της ιστορίας της περιοχής αυτής. Μια περιήγηση στα κάστρα αυτά δίνει τη δυνατότητα ιστορικής, θρησκευτικής και κοινωνικής ανάγνωσης, αναπαράστασης των συνθηκών ζωής και εξαγωγής συμπερασμάτων για την περαιτέρω ιστορική και κοινωνική εξέλιξη της χώρας. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, μέσα από το λογισμικό υπάρχει η δυνατότητα να αντληθούν πληροφορίες που αφορούν την κοινωνική ζωή εκείνης της εποχής (ανθρώπινες σχέσεις, κοινωνική δραστηριότητα και συμπεριφορά), καθημερινή ζωή, όρους διαβίωσης, τρόπο ζωής και επίπεδο ζωής, ατομικά και κοινωνικά δικαιώματα, πολιτισμό και τέχνες. Στο συγκεκριμένο λογισμικό δίνεται έμφαση στη διερευνητική, στη βιωματική και στη συνεργατική μάθηση, μέσω δραστηριοτήτων οι οποίες κινητοποιούν τα ενδιαφέροντα και τη φαντασία του μαθητή, ενθαρρύνουν τη δημιουργικότητά του και την έκφραση των συναισθημάτων του, την αυτενέργεια και την αυτονόμησή του και γενικότερα βοηθά το μαθητή να αναπτύξει δεξιότητες, τόσο σε επίπεδο γραπτού όσο και σε επίπεδο προφορικού λόγου, ενδυναμώνοντας την ικανότητα ανάληψης εκφραστικών και λεκτικών πρωτοβουλιών. Παράλληλα, βοηθούν το μαθητή να αναπτύξει μεθοδολογικές δεξιότητες και να οδηγηθεί στην έρευνα (πχ μελέτη πηγών, έρευνα, ταξινόμηση, ανάλυση, σύγκριση και διασταύρωση πληροφοριών, σύνθεση, εξαγωγή συμπερασμάτων κ.λπ.), αναπτύσσουν την ερμηνευτική δεξιότητα του μαθητή μέσω μιας συγκριτικής ματιάς στα γεγονότα και τέλος αναπτύσσουν την κριτική σκέψη του μαθητή μέσω προβληματισμών, αποφεύγοντας την απλή παράθεση πληροφοριών. Οι δραστηριότητες οι οποίες παρατίθενται μαζί με το λογισμικό αφορούν συνθετικές εργασίες (projects), παιχνίδια ρόλων – δραματοποιήσεις, και δραστηριότητες αξιολόγησης. Οι διδακτικοί στόχοι που γίνεται προσπάθεια να επιτευχθούν μέσω της συγκεκριμένης διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι κατ’ αρχήν γλωσσικοί (ανάπτυξη γλωσσικών δεξιοτήτων μέσω δραστηριοτήτων εξάσκησης γλωσσικών πράξεων), πολιτισμικοί (γνωριμία μαθητών με διαφορετικές κοινωνικές συμπεριφορές και συγκριτική θέαση γεγονότων ιστορίας και πολιτισμού) και λειτουργικοί (εξοικείωση των μαθητών με τη χρήση εκπαιδευτικού λογισμικού, έρευνα στο Διαδίκτυο). / The subject of this thesis is the Design and Development of an Educational Software about British Castles. It consists of a cd-rom, a help manual and the theoretical approach of the subject. It can be used as a complementary tool for teaching English language to High School students in Greece. In the cd-rom, information can be found about British Castles in general and more specifically about Dover Castle, Edinburgh Castle, Tower of London and Warwick Castle. Teaching material is presented in many forms, like text, sound and video. A large number of exercises is included, e.g. multiple choice, true or false, fill in the gaps, matching and hangman. In addition, ten different kinds of exercises accompany the cd-rom in order to help the teacher in class: (a) a listening exercise based on a video that is included in the cd-rom, (b) exercises to fill gaps with the appropriate prepositions or relative pronouns, (c) exercises to turn sentences from simple past to simple present and vice versa, (d) exercises to turn sentences from passive to active voice and vice versa, (e) role playing exercises, (f) exercises to discuss relative topics in the class and (g) combinatorial exercises that include internet search in specified web sites and presentation development from students. All these exercises help students practice in a pleasant and creative way. British Castles is developed by Macromedia Authorware 5.0 and runs in all Windows systems (minimum requirements Pentium II, 256MB RAM)

In der Magisterarbeit werden die Entwicklungsmöglichkeiten der Kommunikationsfähigkeiten und Einfluss der Anwendung der zusätzlichen Kommuniktion im Entwicklungsprozess der autistischen Kinder analysiert. Autismus ist eine tiefgreifende Entwicklungsstörung, die unter anderem durch Störung der Sozialwirkung, verbaler und nonverbaler Kommunikation, Phantasie- und Interessenstörungen gekennzeichnet ist. Autistische Kinder ziehen sich zurück, entwickeln selbststimulierende Verhaltensweisen, haben Sprachstörungen. Komunikation ist Mitteilung der Information an eine andere Person. Gemäss der Natur der durch Autismus beeinflussten Kinder besteht die wichtigste Aufgabe darin, dass die Möglichkeiten der Kommunikation in alltäglichen Situtionen, die Entwicklung der Fertigkeiten müssen entwickelt werden, was man im Leben in der modernen Kultur braucht. In der Magisterarbeit werden die angeborenen Kommunikationsfähigkeiten der autistischen Kinder, die Anwendung der strukturierten Umgebung, Vorbereitung der individuellen Programms und Prüfung ihrer Effizienz anhand eines Entwicklungsexperimentes, Einfluss des zusätzlichen Kommunikationssystems auf Kommunikativität (Lautausspache, Hörverstehen) der autistischen Kinder und auf die Qualität der Sozialkontakten, Einflussmöglichkeiten der zusätzlichen nonverbalen Kommunikation auf psychosoziale Entwicklung analysiert. Es wird eine Qualitätsuntersuchung unternommen und die Analyse der während dieser Untersuchung erhaltenen Ergebnisse ist... [to full text]

This thesis investigates the implementation of the ‘Team-Teach’ behaviour support training programme in New Zealand. This school-wide training package develops generalised skills in behaviour management and de-escalation for students who are exhibiting extreme and violent behaviour. The Team-Teach framework also provides training in physical interventions that are designed for use in schools, and with children. The legal issues associated with the use of physical intervention are also addressed during the training in addition to recommended best practice for the development of policies and procedures. Prior evidence suggests that behaviour support training with a physical intervention overlay can result in increased confidence and safety for staff members and a reduction in the levels of physical intervention and incidents. The purpose of this study was to investigate participant opinion of Team-Teach training immediately after course delivery and further into implementation in addition to an investigation into the barriers and facilitating factors affecting the impact of Team-Teach within two New Zealand special schools. The research employs a mixed method pragmatic paradigm utilising document analysis, questionnaire and interview survey to ascertain the impact and implementation issues related to Team-Teach training. Quantitative analysis of course feedback ratings and attitudinal scales were combined with the qualitative thematic analysis of written comments and interview transcripts to inform the discussion. The results present a positive endorsement of Team-Teach training both immediately after the training course and further into implementation and compare favourably with the findings of previous international studies. Research participants reported a significant increase in personal confidence and a perceived reduction in incidences of extreme behaviour and physical intervention. The perceptions of research participants to initial training in New Zealand varied considerably between training providers and there were also notable differences between groups in different work roles and with different levels of experience. Research participants expressed concern over the lack of adaptation of the Team-Teach syllabus to embrace the New Zealand context. Research participants endorsed use of the ‘positive handling plan’ (PHP) as a way to legitimatise and standardise practice in difficult situations. It was however clear that neither school had developed genuine parental partnerships in either the creation or effective communication of these plans. There was a general agreement that parents should be able to access Team-Teach training but significant concerns were highlighted over how this could be achieved in practice. Research participants endorsed the Team-Teach model of training ‘in-house’ tutors to provide contextual and responsive internal capacity. There was a general agreement that the physical interventions taught were effective and appropriate for use with children. Participants clearly expressed concerns related to the teaching of too many physical interventions that were not required and recommended that training in physical interventions should be in class teams and specific to actual need. There was a clear indication that research participants believed this training should receive official recognition at the highest level as an acknowledgement that physical intervention is sometimes necessary in schools and that there is a legitimate way to achieve this.

This research considered the perceptions of policing students who attended a Preparing to Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector (PTLLS) course at a Central London College for Further Education, in relation to their study needs, motivation levels, relevant support and reflective practice. This phenomenological study considered 15 students from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) employing the use of semi-structured interviews to gather data. The findings were that the students‟ perception in relation to the support offered by the MPS was insufficient and this may be due to the pedagogical approach to learning favoured by many students. Several appeared to require support with learning and writing level at three or four. The college did very well in respect of the perception of the students in relation to the support they experienced. The scarcity of time and the intensity of the course was a prominent factor, where some had underestimated how much time they would need to allocate to study. Overwhelmingly the students required support when engaging in study at level three or four and there appeared to exist very little knowledge in how to write an assignment. Some of the students appeared to favour a more pedagogical approach to study and in some cases reacted against the andragogical style employed by the college. Support from the mentor was valued considerably by most of the students and this appears to be a contributory factor in easing the students back into study. In relation to students‟ perceptions of Reflective Practice (RP) there existed three distinct groups, namely those who considered that they used reflective practice, those who considered they did on certain occasions and one who did not. In general there existed a positive attitude towards the concept of RP although none of the students kept a record of their subsequent RP following the PTLLS course. The phenomenon of Situational Reflective Practice was observed which took the form of Reflection-re-Action and Reflection-re-Inaction. This is concerned with the way in which a social group or an organisation is behaving and the impact this has upon an individual. Further research in relation to the idea of Situational Reflective Practice is called for.